The Davis Square Community

I live in a house with two other roommates. The three of us were on a lease from Dec '07 through Dec '08, and have simply been tenants-at-will since then. We each pay our share of rent individully to the landlord, but my understanding is that we are responsible together for insuring that rent for the apartment is paid in full.

We received a note on the door yesterday from our landlord saying that he would like a call concerning ROOMMATE #3's rent. My other roommate called him back and learned that ROOMMATE #3 was late on this months rent, AND had not paid last months rent either. ROOMMATE #3 has also been eating our food when we are not around, and has not been paying utilities on time.

The kicker here is that ROOMMATE #3 is the ONLY member of the household with a job, and he makes good money. (Corporate Web Developer) :\

Our landlord would love to see this person go, but mainly, he just wants his money. That means that it becomes the responsibility of the other roommate and myself (the unemployed ones) to cover this gap, which is obviously difficult if not impossible for us to do.

I would like to know if anyone has been through a deadbeat roommate situation like this before, and has any words of wisdom on the legal ramifications involved. We know that we can't just kick the deadbeat out, and we don't want to loose this apartment either! (We like it here, and we have a pretty good report with the landlord since we stopped throwing late night parties a year ago!) We would love to get rid of this deadbeat!

Any helpful advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank!